i Light Singapore

Asia’s leading sustainable light art festival is back in Marina Bay after a 2-year hiatus to illuminate the Lion City’s nightscape with radiant works of art from all across the globe.

First held in 2010, i Light Singapore is an annual celebration that brings people from all walks of life together by shining a light on art and sustainability.

Light and Earth intertwined

After a 2-year break, i Light Singapore 2022 returns with the theme Spark of Light, featuring 20 artworks by artists from all over the world. Apart from transforming the Bay area into a dazzling display of lights, some of these artworks also highlight the plight of our environment, imploring visitors to think deeper as they view the pieces. Highlights include the MOTHEREARTH ClimateChange Data Sculpture by Turkish new media studio Ouchhh in partnership with Marina Bay Sands, where a visual display of light and sound is projected on the ArtScience Museum building, and the Plastic Whale, an inflatable whale filled with recyclable plastic bottles and scraps, by Craig Neo from Singapore, and Feng Qiao, Liao Qingshuang and Li Jianwen from China, where the lights reflect the whale breathing in distress.

This year’s festival also featured 4 student artworks as part of the line-up, such as Re-act by Isabella Meo and Liang Tai Lin from the National University of Singapore’s Department of Architecture, where a series of lights simulating toxic dyes and untreated sewage are setup along the Queen Elizabeth Walk waterfront steps to highlight the pollution going into water bodies. The lights are also arranged to emulate cracks in icebergs that form due to climate change.

Promoting sustainability through art

Visitors can use the SusGain rewards app to learn more about the sustainability considerations behind each artwork, such as the Shish-ka-buoy by Angus Muir which is an installation made entirely of recyclable marine buoys. The four inflatable sculptures of “ugly” food called Waste Not Want Not presented by the festival’s sponsor DBS and done by local art collective Tell Your Children, prompts viewers to question what makes food beautiful and encourage them to consume more consciously as food waste becomes a worsening problem, an installation that is in line with DBS’ Towards Zero Food Waste initiative. Additionally, as part of i Light’s signature Switch Off Turn Up campaign, buildings and corporations around and beyond Marina Bay will be switching off non-essential lightings and turning up air-conditioning temperatures throughout the festival to reduce energy consumption.

More than lights

Alongside the Festival is Gastrobeats at Bayfront Event Space where visitors can feast to their heart’s desire at Local Streets, showcasing Singapore’s vibrant street food culture, or at Culinary Masters, featuring a different collaboration menu each week by celebrity chef Sarah Todd, and chefs George Calombaris, Genevieve Lee and Derek Cheong of MasterChef fame. Explore the local art scene at Art Zone, with live Graffiti battles happening every Saturday, while kids and the young at heart can bounce the night away at Jumptopia’s gigantic food-themed inflatable playground.

Visitors looking to deepen their festival experience can participate in the newly launched Light Forum, a series of tours, talks and workshops where they can learn about lighting design and activating spaces. Drone enthusiasts can also head over to Drone Nation at The Lawn at Marina Bay, presented by the Marina Bay Alliance, where they can operate luminous drones, race against other professionals in a neon light obstacle course, or learn how to operate a drone from expert trainers.